The iPhone 12 Pro boasts more dynamic range than the Canon EOS R5 in iOS beta
Nov 17, 2020
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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Apple recently announced the developer beta for iOS 14.3 which brings with it Apple’s new ProRAW photo feature. iPhones have actually had DNG RAW capabilities since iOS 10, but it’s never offered this capability in the built-in camera app before. You’ve always had to go for third party solutions, like Camera+ or Lightroom.
But now, Apple is implementing it in their own camera app and they’re calling it “ProRAW”. And according to PetaPixel, the cameras within the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max will allow it to capture 12-bit DNG files with up to 14-stops of dynamic range. Other than the capabilities of the actual camera module itself, though, I’m not sure what it offers that iPhone users couldn’t do already.
We now know that a ProRAW file will be a 12-bit RAW DNG with 14-stops of dynamic range. That file will give you access to the standard options like white balance, tone mapping, exposure, and black point, but Apple will also be providing more information inside the RAW file that includes tone mapping and pigmentation maps for skin and skies.
It looks like DNG raw editing capabilities will soon also be available within the iOS Photos app on the release of iOS 14 final. There’s no word as to when that release might happen, but it means you won’t need to go to 3rd party apps like Snapseed or Lightroom anymore to shoot DNG raw photos with your iPhone.
As with just about every camera, though, you’re not seeing the actual raw image when you’re scanning through your images, though. It’s embedding a JPG preview, which is what you see when flicking through your camera roll, but with a little RAW badge to indicate that there’s more data there when you choose to edit it.
Curiously, the ProRAW feature is only coming to the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max, not the regular 12 or the 12 Mini. But you’ll still be able to shoot and edit RAW images with them using a 3rd party camera and editing apps, so I’m not entirely sure what the point is of Apple limiting the feature to only the two higher-end models
It will be interesting to see if the files actually hold up to the 14-stops of dynamic range claim, when the Canon EOS R5 only manages about a mere 12 stops.
[via PetaPixel]
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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13 responses to “The iPhone 12 Pro boasts more dynamic range than the Canon EOS R5 in iOS beta”
When I was a wee little kid, my mother taught me not to believe everything the advertisements claim. Still good advice.
Your claim that R5 have DR of only 12 EV is pretty misleading… the article you linked is about the DR in 8K RAW and 12 EV is basically limitation of CLOG (firmware update with CLOG3 should be already planned, according to canonrumors) – and the photo DR is not that limited and although not yet properly measured, it looks like it will be approximately same as the 1Dx3 – about 14.5 stops – for comparison EOS R ha 13.5 EV
What !!!
So you’re saying that we should buy iPhone 12 Pro instead of Canon EOS R5? I mean, Dynamic Range is everything, right?
Nope. Sensor SIZE is everything! With this one important exception though: Full frame is still better than the bigger medium format. But don’t ask me why – just read the internet forums and you’ll see. :D
Michael Estwik I thought eye AF was everything. Those marketing people bamboozled us again!
Joe Hoddinott yeah, it seems to keep changing all the time as well.
In a single sensor read under the same conditions the iPhone sensor DR will be well below the R5 for DR. End of story. Because a file format contains a capacity to record 14 stops of DR does not mean the sensor and associated electronics can provide 14 stops of DR.
Apple has actually claimed that the sensor and associated electronics do exactly that, though. :)
OK. Do you have a link?
The iPhone 12 photosites are 1.7u compared to 4.38 on the R5. Photon gathering by area is according to pitch squared so 19.3 to 2.9, a ratio of 6.7 to 1. This is ignoring the potential to noise reduce by downsampling the higher pixel count of the R5. I don’t think it is plausible that the read circuitry and ADC conversion are that much quieter on the iPhone, so I wonder what Apple are really claiming here.
Even if Apple use HDR exposure bracketing, that can only help at the highlight end of DR. You just can’t catch enough photons in low light with the small sensor. Not unless there’s a big difference in lens f number.
Better dynamic range is often used to describe better image fidelity. And smartphones with tiny sensors and plastic lenses will never outperform larger sensors shot on good glass. Also, there is dynamic range and usable dynamic range. You can stack exposures when there is a lot of light and maybe that will help with hightligts but in terms of low light performance of fine details, a smartphone sensors can’t overcome physics.